


i still got love for you

by screaminghalfpastmidnight



Series: happy endings aren't overrated [6]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Dad!Barry Allen, F/F, but xstar is endgame, childhood friends to ex best friends to lovers, earth-prime timeline, its more like kind of making amends after lots of angst, mama!iris west, mentions of the queen clan, named after a taylor swift song, nora and mia grew apart but then find each other at prom, references to nightmares/death, that will be explained in the notes, this isn't a getting together fic tho sorry, xstar, you dont really need to read the rest of this series to understand this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:00:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29871573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screaminghalfpastmidnight/pseuds/screaminghalfpastmidnight
Summary: At fourteen years old, Nora West-Allen can confidently state that Mia Queen is her number one best friend in the entire world. The thing is: Nora’s fourteen now, which means Mia is seventeen. Their small age gap had never been a problem before, but they’re in high school now, and from countless conversations with her cousins, Nora’s come to the conclusion that teenagers' brains just go out of sync in these formative years and they lose a lot of friends.She hasn’t lost Mia - she never will - but where they once were two peas in a pod, complete equals, Nora can’t help but feel like she’s become some sort of annoying little cousin you don’t want hanging around your actual friends. She’s sure Mia never meant to make her feel that way, but she’s got new friends now. Friends that sneak behind the school to smoke, friends that skip class more often than not, friends who sneak flasks into prom. Friends who are old enough to get into prom, which Nora is definitely not.Unless, she has an older date.ORin the future, mia and nora have grown apart during high school and then meet again at CCHS prom.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Iris West & Nora West-Allen, Barry Allen & Nora West-Allen, Barry Allen/Iris West, Iris West & Nora West-Allen, Lia Nelson & Nora West-Allen, Mia Smoak/Nora West-Allen
Series: happy endings aren't overrated [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576168
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	i still got love for you

**Author's Note:**

> HI AGAIN!! i'm back with more of this wonderful series that i love.
> 
> a few notes:
> 
> in my version of future earth-prime, the kids don't know about their previous timeline lives (yet 0_0) but a select few get very vivid nightmares about them - Nora, William, Mia, Connor and Zoe.
> 
> all the parents made a pact not to tell them about it :)
> 
> also Mia goes to CCHS because in my mind, there's some program she wants to be in and the train system has been updated so it doesn't take long to get there.
> 
> i hope you enjoy!
> 
> ps. title from 'seven' by Taylor Swift

At fourteen years old, Nora West-Allen can confidently state that Mia Queen is her number one best friend in the entire world - that is, if she’s excluding her mother. Mia tells her that they were practically made to be best friends, given the way they were raised together. Their childhoods were full of family parties and sneaking off after dinner to play outside or when they got a little older, running up to Mia’s room, turning the lights off and getting under the covers, using their phones to illuminate their faces so they could chat quietly.

The thing is: Nora’s fourteen now, which means Mia is seventeen. Their small age gap had never been a problem before, but they’re in high school now, and from countless conversations with her cousins, Nora’s come to the conclusion that teenagers' brains just go out of sync in these formative years and they lose a lot of friends.

She hasn’t lost Mia - she never will - but where they once were two peas in a pod, complete equals, Nora can’t help but feel like she’s become some sort of annoying little cousin you don’t want hanging around your actual friends. She’s sure Mia never meant to make her feel that way, but she’s got new friends now. Friends that sneak behind the school to smoke, friends that skip class more often than not, friends who sneak flasks into prom. Friends who are old enough to  _ get into _ prom, which Nora is definitely not.

Unless, she has an older date.

Nora’s prom plan consists of three parts:

  1. find an upperclassman that seems nice enough to be friends with and won’t find it weird that a freshman is trying to talk to them
  2. somehow get this upperclassman to invite Nora to this year’s prom as their date
  3. come up with a glorious speech about rebuilding friendship, go to prom and say it all to Mia



Luckily, the first step begins on a Monday a little over a month from prom when a junior is transferred into her Lit class. Nora’s a year above the rest of her grade, though only in the English department and so she figures it might be easier to get this new girl to talk to her if she thinks Nora’s not a freshman.

(It’s not like the other grades  _ hate _ the freshmen. Nora knows that isn’t true. But she’s been told by many of her cousins that the person you are in your first year of high school versus the other three are wildly different. That there’s things every person goes through in ninth grade that changes them, like shedding old skin.)

The seat beside her is empty - another stroke of unusual luck - and the new girl sits down beside her, immediately opening up her notebook and starting to add to some previous doodles. Nora sits there quietly for a second, discreetly watching her draw before she works up the confidence to speak. “I’m Nora.” is all she says.

That turns out to be enough.

Lia Nelson is seemingly just as much of a nerd as Nora is, and has only been pushed back a year due to some health problems. Her favorite colour is pink, she has a pet dog named Mouse, and she’s adopted. These are all things Nora learns within the first day of meeting her. Over the next month, she learns a lot more.

Step 1 - done!

With a week left to go, Nora’s honestly starting to forget all about her prom plan. It’s not like she doesn’t have any friends other than Mia, but no one could quite fill that best friend, close as sisters void. Until Lia, that is. Sometimes she feels a little guilty that the only reason she talked to her in the beginning was to get an invite to prom, but then she’s grateful because otherwise, she never would’ve met Lia. 

On the Friday before prom, Lia’s in class before she is - which is unusual - and practically bouncing nervously in her seat. She waves Nora over, even though she was obviously going to sit there anyways and grabs her arm. “So, prom’s on Thursday.”

“Yeah, I heard. It’s not like it’s been all over the announcements or anything.” Nora jokes, shoving her books to the corner of her desk.

“Well, I’m going with a group of friends and unfortunately, we’re only one person off for our table. Usually, they’ll just stick you with a rando but I figured since I don’t have a plus one, you could fill the spot? If you want to.” Lia says, and even if Nora had no interest in going to prom, the look on her face would be enough to agree to it.

“Uh, okay. As long as you promise not to leave me alone with your friends I barely know.” Nora points and Lia nods enthusiastically, sticking out her pinkie. Nora interlocks hers and grins, turning to face the front of the class, where Tyler Wilms is drawing inappropriate images on the smartboard. Typical.

When she gets home from school that day, she’s more than surprised to see both her parents curled up on the sofa, her mom with a glass of wine, feet in Barry’s lap. Her father turns his head when he hears the door open, sending her a warm smile that only she ever sees. “Well, this hasn’t happened since I was, like, ten.” Nora snorts, ripping off her winter coat and hat, throwing into the closet, only to take them out and hang them up when she gets a look from her mother. “How come you guys are home?”

“Frost and Cisco have it handled.” Barry says, shifting away from Iris and waving his hand to beckon his daughter over to them. “Now, come here. Give me a hug. You were asleep when I came home last night.”

Nora steps out of her boots quickly and then practically runs over to the couch, jumping on top of both of her parents, who let out simultaneous groans at the pressure. Barry presses three kisses to her cheek and then squeezes her tight, unwilling to let go. “Tell me about your day. Today and yesterday. I wanna hear everything.”

“Yesterday was fine and today was… also fine.”

He frowns. “You’re hilarious.”

“And starving.” She says, getting up and heading to the kitchen, opening the fridge wide and looking for the leftovers she’d stored away from the previous night. She pulls out the container and pops the lid off, placing the chicken in the microwave. “I also have a question for you guys.”

“No, you cannot stay home from the Queens’ next week. You can’t take out what happened between you and Mia on the rest of our family.” Her mother responds, raising her eyebrows as if saying ‘that’s final’ and taking another sip of wine.

“That’s not what I was gonna ask.” Nora snorts, before humming. “Well, I was gonna ask that, just not today.” She says, both her parents turning around in their seats to show they’re listening. She avoids their gaze, taking her leftovers out of the microwave and stabbing the chicken with a fork. “Uh, I was wondering if I could maybe go to prom on Thursday?”

“Prom?” Iris frowns. “I mean, sure. But I thought we still had a few years before prom. Isn’t it only seniors?”

“Seniors and Juniors.” Nora nods in agreement. “But, I actually got invited by someone.”

Barry’s eyes light up and he grins at her. “As like, a date? Who’s the girl?”

“I didn’t say it was a girl.” Nora says teasingly, relenting when her father tilts his head to the side. “Her name’s Lia Nelson. She’s in Mia’s grade. They had an extra seat at their table, it’s not a date.”

She looks up from her chicken then, only to see a stunned look on her parents faces, the two of them exchanging unreadable glances. “Lia.” Her mom whispers to her husband, causing Nora to frown, confused.

“Yeah. Do you know her parents or something?”

“No, no.” Iris covers up, finally looking over to her. “I’m sure she’s great, though. I have a feeling.”

Nora nods, a little uncomfortable and smacks her lips together. “Well, can I go?”

“Of course you can.” Barry says, nodding. “I’ll make sure I can get you there, okay?”

Nora frowns even more, happy she gets to go but… confused with everything else. “What is wrong with you guys?”

“Nothing.” Iris says, blinking as the two of them stand, making their way into the kitchen. “We’re just excited, honey. Prom is a big moment. I mean, we need to figure out what you’re going to wear. Do you want to go shopping?”

“Yeah, I was thinking tomorrow.” Nora says, taking a bite of her chicken.

Iris nods excitedly. “We can do that.”

“So, tell me about this Lia girl, baby. What’s she like?” Barry asks, placing his hands on her shoulder and kissing the top of her head, another unreadable glance being sent Iris’ way.

Shopping with her mother the next day goes well and she gets a lovely dress that doesn’t cost too much. She decides she’ll only splurge for her final prom, like everyone else does - she’s not gonna spend money on a dress that no one from her grade will actually see outside of social media.

When the day comes, she spends three hours in her parents’ room as Iris does her hair and helps decide on which shoes to wear and what jewelry to match. Donnie and her dad are making dinner together, and while she typically loves their lasagna, the smell of it makes her feel pukey. She has no reason to be nervous but for some reason, she really is. When she gets the notification that Lia and her friends are five minutes away, she finishes up and then heads downstairs, avoiding her dad’s eyes the second they start to get all mopey. “Looking good.” Is all her brother says, stealing a bit of veggies off the cutting board.

“You look amazing.” Barry says, cleaning off his hands and stepping towards her, hands on her shoulders, careful not to hug her tight enough to mess up her look. “Let me get some pictures, okay?” He says, flashing away and then coming back with the camera he and Iris had bought when the kids were younger, hoping to capture moments like these.

With the photos done, she heads down to the lower floor by herself, grinning when she sees Lia hanging out of her friend’s car. She’s met a few of them before, but they’re in no means close, so Nora sticks by Lia in the beginning hour. Mia shows up late, arm wrapped around her friend, Chrissie.

Her outfit is a direct contrast to what Nora’s wearing - Mia’s in a black lace suit, hair down in loose, messy curls while Nora’s in a pastel purple tight dress, hair in an elegant updo. She notices her from across the room, laughing with her friends until Mia’s eyes eventually land on her with a flicker of confusion, followed by a warmth that’s been there since they were kids. She says something to her friends and then walks over to the drinks station, where Nora’s standing with Lia. “I’ll be right back.” She says, clutching her cup and then moving to meet Mia halfway, accepting the surprised hug she’s given. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Mia grins. “What are you doing here?”

“I came with a few friends.” Nora replies, hoping she won’t be questioned too much about the nature of this friendship.

“Me too.” Mia hums, as if Nora didn’t already know that. “I love your dress. You look cute.”

_ Cute,  _ Nora thinks. It’s such a surface-level compliment, clearly indicating that they’re not really friends anymore. “Yeah, you look great too. So, did you bring a date?”

“No, you know I always go solo to these things. You bring a date and it ruins all the fun.” Mia chuckles, taking Nora’s cup out of her hands wordlessly and taking a sip. “Not that I’m having the time of my life anyway. This playlist is total shit, I don’t understand how anyone’s dancing right now.”

That, Nora can agree on. She doesn’t say anything as Mia continues, kicking her heels. “Honestly, I’m only here because my mom wants me to be.”

She doesn’t really need to elaborate. Felicity Smoak has always had a  _ thing _ about her kids having the most normal lives as possible, which is a tough pill to swallow considering Auntie Nyssa is currently training the youngest of the Queen clan, and finished training Mia last year. What they’re training for, Nora has no idea. Mia wrings her hand together as Nora nods along, unsure of what to say. Mia speaks for her, taking a step back. “Well, uh… I’ll let you get back to your friends.”

_ But you’re supposed to be my best friend, _ Nora doesn’t say. Instead, she smiles and waves as Mia starts to walk away, one of her clearly drunk friends swinging an arm around her and saying a little too loudly, “Hey, sexy!”

High school is weird.

As the night goes on, Nora realizes that Mia was right. Prom really isn’t what it’s chalked up to be. She contemplates texting Donnie from her table to pass the time, but quickly opts for a game instead, knowing he’d already been making fun of her for going two years early anyways. “By the time you go with our grade, it’s going to be so boring you’ll go home early.” He’d said. She thinks he’s probably right.

She watches Mia a little too much, she can admit. Despite her earlier notions about not having the time of her life, she appears to be doing quite the opposite. She dances with her friends, sneaks sips from a flask and winks at Nora when she sees, she even slow dances with some guy Nora’s never seen before tonight.

With an hour left of prom to go, something changes. Mia looks pissed off, arms crossed, mindlessly talking to her friends like they’re talking about philosophy or something. Various bachelors come up to her, as they’ve done her whole life, and ask her to dance or whatever, but she says no each time - quite irritated with them, by the looks of it.

Eventually, she catches Nora’s eye and huffs, chugging the last of her non-alcoholic drink she got from the bar and stalks over to her, popping her hip when she says, “Do you wanna get out of here?” as if it’s not really a question.

Mia grabs her hand and leads her to coat check, before the two of them shove open the doors to the venue and clasp their hands together, walking down the streets of Central City, in the direction of the train station. They chat like old times on the walk, the beginnings of the conversation focused on ‘how’s the family’ and ‘what classes are you taking’ before it morphs into the types they’d have under the covers at the Queen mansion, muffled laughter coming from downstairs as they swore they’d run away at the next dinner - into the woods, or something (not that there’s any nearby woods in Star City).

When they plop down onto the bench on the empty platform, Mia lets out a sigh as Nora just watches her breath freeze. They’re silent for a while, waiting on the train that’ll take Mia home before she speaks. “Do you ever think about taking it out?” Nora just looks at her confused. “The chip? I mean, do you regret it?”

Nora pauses before shrugging her shoulders. “Sometimes.” Her parents had told her she had powers when she was ten and they’d had a long conversation about the dangers this power posed, not only to Nora but to everyone around her. A blunt, scary conversation like that, especially at that age would be enough to make anyone want to lock their powers away for a lifetime. Hers are only gone until she’s eighteen and undergoes surgery to remove it. “I don’t think I would’ve made a different decision, but I think I made it for the wrong reasons.”

“But don’t you ever wanna be free?” Mia asks, and Nora thinks this isn’t really about her and her powers. “You could do anything, you could  _ go _ anywhere. But you just stay here and remain…  _ normal _ . Haven’t you ever wanted more? I mean, you’re special but you don’t let yourself be.”

Nora bites her lip, blinking. “I’d like to think I’m special for things other than my dad’s DNA.”

A look of regret flashes over Mia’s face. “I didn’t mean it that way, I’m just… I’ve just been feeling really trapped recently.” She pauses, Nora sitting there listening patiently. “The nightmares came back.”

It’s a weird thing. They only figured out they weren’t alone when Nora was nine or so. There are a few people in their family that get nightmares so bad, they feel like some other life. Some horrible, twisted, tragic other life. Mia’s are typically about a life with a dead dad, never knowing William, being a cage fighter, her mother killing herself. Connor gets them, too. As does William, but Nora’s never really asked the boys about it.

Nora’s had almost a year without a single one.

She dreams of a distant mother, a dead friend she can’t put a name to, an imaginary friend she knows she shouldn’t talk to. She hears screams sometimes and she’s sure they’re Jenna’s. Occasionally, she wakes up and can’t move her legs. More often than not, she dreams she’s dying. She can feel her heart stop, the clenching in her chest, her mother’s sobs. She thinks her dad is there too, but she can never see his face. Sometimes she wakes up and she can’t even see her hands. They fade in and out of existence as if they’re glitching but when she calls for her father and he comes running in, he tells her he doesn’t see anything and cups her face,holding her close as she catches her breath.

“How bad?” Nora whispers in the dark, staring at a flickering streetlight from down the platform.

“Like… Zoe’s dying in my arms. And… and JJ’s slicing my neck and I’m standing at my dad’s grave.  _ That bad _ .” She says, choking on the words. Mia’s gone the longest without them out of all of them. Three years. “I just have this feeling like, like I need to get out. Like I just need to run and get away from it all. But I don’t know what I’m running from.”

“Have you told them?” Nora asks, already knowing the answer.

“I can’t.” Mia whispers. “They’ll just be on my case all the time, you know that.”

Nora hums. “Maybe you can go stay with Will. That can’t hurt. Maybe he’s getting them, too. Yours always seemed to sync up.” She suggests, before taking a breath and saying, “And if you don’t want to do that, well you know you can always call me.”

“Yeah, I do.” Mia says clearly, looking at her for the first time. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around recently, I’m uh… I don’t know what I am. I just didn’t call.”

“It’s okay.” Nora says quietly, even though it’s not, because this is Mia. She’s always been complicated and similarly, Nora’s always been uncomplicated. She can let this go, of course she can. “You know, you told me once that we need each other. That even if we tried, we couldn’t get rid of each other because of where we come from. Even with everything… I believe that’s still true.”   
  


Mia nods once, looking at her sincerely. “So do I.”

The train pulls up then, screeching as it comes to a halt, the doors sliding open with only one person stepping off. They can see through the windows that there are very few people in each car and Mia stands, immediately getting angry at her heels. She turns to Nora and says, “I’ll be seeing you.”

She steps onto the train and doesn’t look back. “Bye, Mia.” Nora whispers.

She doesn’t stay home from the Queens’ that next week.

**Author's Note:**

> title from 'seven' by Taylor Swift
> 
> leave a comment if you liked it!! more from this series coming soon <3


End file.
